Bitmain Will Invest 50 Million in Opera Web Browser

Published on06 Jul. 2018

The Chinese crypto giant Bitmain wants to invest $50 million to the Norwegian company Opera Ltd.

Bitmain purchased the shares of Opera Ltd., the company that stands behind the popular web browser, for 50 million, informs Cryptovest. The agreement was signed last Friday, but the information has been revealed only now since it was the part of the SEC application for the IPO for 115 million dollars. The exact Bitmain stock of shares remains unknown.

Tospring Technology Ltd. is mentioned together with two other buyers in the IPO. Tospring, also known as Bitmain, owns one of the most considerable market shares in the Bitcoin mining industry. The estimated income of the company in 2017 has been from three to four billion dollars. The Chinese company is known for its secrecy which distinguishes it from its competitors.

Besides this, unlike other producers of the mining equipment, Bitmain uses ASIC-miners, produced by the company itself, for Bitcoin mining. In June, Chinese giant raised worries in the cryptocurrency community since it approached the 51% control over the Bitcoin network.

Opera offers various versions of web browsers for PCs and mobile devices; its general market share is 1.5%. In March, the company reached 350 million users. In January, Opera hit the cryptocurrency news after it provided its users with the protection from the cryptojacking of their devices.

Opera Limited, the parent company of Opera Software AS, applied for the SEC registration on June 30, 2018. According to the application, the company tends to use the IPO earnings for the distribution and marketing, to increase the brand awareness on all markets, and to finance the scientific research, as well as “continue to improve the information content.” It will release the American depositary shares in the undisclosed ratio to the general market. Goldman Sachs and CICC are also engaged in share purchasing to guarantee their placement on IPO. Opera shares will be traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol OPRA.